Author: cprindia

VISUAL TIMELINE OF THE COURSE BY THE ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE

There are limited opportunities for Civil Society Organisation staff and aspiring development practitioners in rural India to build their conceptual skills on governance. Accountability Initiative’s course – Hum Aur Humaari Sarkaar – is a step to bridge this capability gap. In mid-March, the first ‘open’ course was conducted in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Applications were invited from all over the state. After a selection process, staff from 6 NGOs and students from leading state universities were accepted into the course. All exhibited potential to effect positive change by actively monitoring the way public services are delivered.

To give the participants the conceptual skills they need to engage with the government system, course curriculum is based on evidence from Accountability Initiative’s research and features hands on practical tips. Their lessons included: planning and budgeting at the Gram Panchayat level, understanding the complexities of the bureaucratic set-up responsible for service delivery, and the financial architecture of government schemes. Cutting edge academic theory on public administration and finance informs the course.

READ THE BLOG SERIES
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

In June 2014, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) constituted the Shailesh Nayak (SN) Committee to review the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2011. While it was reportedly done in response to state governments’ concerns regarding coastal development, it opened up several contentious issues for diverse opinions. This was despite the fact that so far, the environment ministry has not disclosed the overall road map of the proposed reform. See details here, here and here.

Over the years, the contentious issues have received views from various actors- industries, real estate, construction and tourism sectors, fisher groups, coastal citizens, academics and NGOs. Presented Below are those contentious issues of coastal regulation along with a selection of views on those. These views have been collated from the file notings and a list of comments on the draft CRZ Notification 2018 received from the MoEFCC in October 2018 through a Right to Information (RTI) application. Find these documents here and here.

Width of No Development Zone in rural areas

The CRZ Notification, 2011 delineates the first 200 m of the CRZ III (rural) areas as No Development Zone (NDZ). The SN Committee suggested that there should be a differential CRZ that is based on population density. It recommended that CRZ III areas with a population density of 2161 per sq km and higher should have an NDZ of 50 m and areas with a population density of less than 2161 per sq km should have an NDZ of 200 m width.

Views from within the Ministry

Two officers who reviewed the suggestions of the SN Committee in 2015 had different opinions on the matter. One officer accepted the suggestion of having a population density based NDZ, the other felt that a population based distinction was not required as ‘urbanisation is a dynamic process’.

The difference of opinion on this issue continued despite the change in officers in charge of revising the notification. In fact, consensus on qualification of those rural areas (CRZ III) that should have a narrower NDZ didn’t come by till the end of 2017. At that time one officer felt that the recommendation of the SN committee should be retained, however another officer contended that declaration of a panchayat as an urban local body was a better criteria. Under the CRZ Notification 2011, urban areas are not required to maintain an NDZ.

Holding a similar view, a different officer in November 2017 dropped the suggestion of the SN Committee from the draft that was presented before the Prime Minister’s Office. He argued that the state government could reclassify the areas with densities ‘high enough’ as municipalities/urban areas.

Views from the submissions on Draft CRZ 2018

While within the ministry, the basis of permitting a reduced NDZ in certain rural areas was discussed at length, outside the ministry many fisher groups, NGOs, panchayath and industry representatives asked for a uniform NDZ all across- representations from tourism and real estate sectors and some gram panchayats asked for a considerably reduced NDZ and fisher groups, NGOs and citizens’ groups demanded that the originally stipulated 200 m wide NDZ be retained. Below is a selection of suggestions on the subject as received by the ministry.

Hazira Machhimar Samiti, Gujarat; Pavity Jinwar Kodi, Mumbai; Harbadevi Machhimar Sarvodaya Sahkari Society, Mumbai; Machhimar Samaj Sangh Palghar, Maharashtra and Dakshinbanga Matsyajibi Forum, West Bengal objected to the reduction of the NDZ. In fact, Hazira Machhimar Samiti demanded that the NDZ should be more than 200 m.
St Estevam Biodiversity Management Committee, Goa conceded that there shouldn’t be any reduction in the NDZ. Biodiversity Management Committees are constituted by the local bodies at the village and municipality level. They are constituted under the Biodiversity Act 2002 for the conservation and management of biological diversity of an area.
State Vice President of BJP, Daman & Diu and three other representatives of the party from the state opined that Diu should have an NDZ of 20m.
Representative from the Oberoi group advocated for an NDZ of 20 m. President of the Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd. Stated: ‘NDZ is against development.’
Paduvary Grama Panchayath, Karnataka requested that a uniform NDZ of 50 m should apply in CRZ III areas.
Candolim Residents and Consumer Forum sought a reversal to a uniform 200 m NDZ. Goa Foundation, an NGO active in Goa demanded the same.
World Travel & Tourism Council, India Initiative contended that in thinly populated rural areas, an NDZ of 100 m should apply.
Gujarat Chemical Port Terminal Company Limited stated in its submission that the NDZ should not apply in notified industrial estates and investment regions.
School of industrial fisheries, Cochin University of Science & Technology objected to the reduction of NDZ and stated in its submission: ‘NDZ reduction may trigger displacement and migration of traditional communities.’
CRZ along tidal influenced water bodies

The CRZ Notification 2011 in its Clause (ii) mandates that along estuaries, creeks and other tidal influenced water bodies connected to the sea, a CRZ of 100m or width of the water body, whichever is less applies. The notification also states that the distance upto, which the zone applies, is till a point upto which the tidal effects are observed. Tidal effect is established if salinity of 5 parts per thousand is observed in a water body in the driest period of the year. Since the sea and the water bodies connected with the sea share the same habitat and biodiversity, the clause was added as a measure to protect the coastal biodiversity and livelihoods that are dependent on it. Both these issues received divergent opinions within and outside the ministry.

Width of the CRZ along tidal influenced water bodies

Views from within the ministry

While reviewing the SN Committee report, two officers in the MoEFCC suggested in 2015 that a CRZ of 50 m or width of the water body whichever is less would suffice. Different drafts considered by the ministry also had varying proposals on the subject. Those have been summarised in the table below.

Various drafts & reports CRZ Width
Shailesh Nayak Committee Report 2014 100m; 25 m1
Draft Integrated Marine and Coastal Conservation Notification (IMCC), 2015 25m
Draft CRZ Notification 2018 50m
* The SN originally stipulated Committee retained the width in its suggestions but in the draft CRZ Notification that it recommended, width of the NDZ had become 25 m.

Views from the submissions on Draft CRZ 2018

Additional Chief Secretary of Kerala opined that CRZ around tidal influenced water bodies should be 30 m.
Bombay Environmental Action Group and Sabuj Mancha, environmental NGO from Maharashtra and West Bengal respectively asked for a reversal to original 100 m of CRZ around the tidal influenced water bodies.
Machhimar Sehkaari Sanstha Navi Mumbai noted that reduction in CRZ width around water bodies was ‘against the spirit of CRZ Notification.’
Edavanakad Gram Panchayath of Vypin islands in Ernakulam district of Kerala sought a CRZ of 30 m around tidal influenced water bodies.
Surat Builders’ Association and Real Estate developers’ Association suggested that CRZ for tidal influenced water bodies should be 30 m where there is no bund or retaining wall and 15 m where there is a bund.
City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra, Navi Mumbai suggested that bunds made by villagers should not be considered as tidal influenced water bodies and no CRZ should apply there.
Most submissions as mentioned in the table compiled by the MoEFCC do not provide reasons for their suggestions. Sometimes, reductions have been sought for tourism development; an individual mentioned that reduction in CRZ along the creeks will release large stretches of land for affordable housing. Those who have criticised the reduction have opined that it would put additional strain on the coast and harm coastal ecology and traditional livelihoods.

Length of the CRZ along tidal influenced water bodies

Views from within the Ministry

The draft IMCC Notification that was being considered by the ministry in the year 2015 had a clause that limited the length of the CRZ along tidal influenced water bodies up to a length of 1 km from the mouth of water body into the sea. However, in the subsequent drafts, the ministry reverted to the original salinity criteria to determine the length of the water body up to, which the CRZ would apply. Read about the different drafts in the first blog post of the series.

Views from the submissions on Draft CRZ 2018

Additional Chief Secretary of Kerala suggested that the CRZ along a water body should be limited to 1 km in urban areas and 3 kms in rural areas.
Varapuzha Gram Panchayath of Ernakulam, Kerala opined that CRZ limit should not exceed beyond 8 km form the mouth of the estuary. Advocate Ebenser C L from Cochin shared a similar view with the MoEFCC in his submission.
FSI and FAR for buildings in CRZ II areas

The CRZ Notification 2011, freezes the Floor Space Index (FSI) and Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for buildings in the CRZ II (urban) areas to the level of 1991. This was done to ensure that there was ample open space around the buildings in coastal areas. This would reduce the pressure on the coast and their vulnerability to natural disasters. In contrast to the CRZ Notification, 2011, SN Committee recommended in the report that FSI and FAR should not be fixed at the level of 1991 for buildings in CRZ II. But in the draft notification that it suggested FSI/FAR were not mentioned explicitly.

Views from within the Ministry

In 2015, one officer accepted the suggestion of the committee to defreeze FSI and FAR for buildings in CRZ II. But another officer suggested that along with this change a coastline conservation program should be implemented. He added that project proponents should fund this ‘as the coastline will witness the growth of infrastructure’. He also suggested that a setback of 5-10 m from the HTL should be protected. In the draft CRZ Notification 2018, FSI and FAR for buildings in urban areas is no more fixed at the 1991 level but it is as applicable on the date of the notification. Also, the additional requirement of coastline conservation programme is not there.

Views from the submissions on Draft CRZ 2018

Kalpataru Limited, a real estate company and Builders Association of Mumbai sought that FSI and FAR are changed from time to time according to the changes in the local town and country planning regulations. 8-10 coastal citizens demanded the same.
Essel Infraprojects and Mumbai Association of Realtors suggested that the permitted FSI for buildings in urban coastal areas be increased.
Cavelossim Villagers’ Forum, Goa conceded on the other hand that FSI/FAR restrictions should not be relaxed. Machhimar Sahkari Sanstha Maryadit, Navi Mumbai and Prakriti NGO, Puri, Odisha suggested the same.
Hotel Association of Puri shared in its submission that regulations with respect to FSI/FAR were not clear.
Coasts are one of the most vied landscapes due to their trade, industry and tourism potential, livelihood dependence, scenic beauty and conservation value. However, these interests often come with contradictory visions for the coasts and different set of expectations from the coastal legislation. In the last four years these differences have become starker as only certain actors have been taken on board while charting the road map for the coasts. The CRZ revamp series so far has shared the details of discussion within and outside of the ministry on CRZ regulation and brought home the point that coastal regulation is an issue of public interest. It has also emphasised on the significance of granting opportunities for a genuine public review of the coastal law in reconciling the differences. This last blog post of the series, by drawing attention to the crucial and unresolved aspects of the coastal regulation, echoes once again the need for a wider dialogue on the law.

FULL VIDEO OF THE DISCUSSION
URBAN ECONOMY URBAN GOVERNANCE

Watch the full video (above) of the discussion on ‘Fractal Urbanism: Residential-segregation in Modernising India‘ featuring Andaleeb Rahman.

The presentation showed how residential caste-segregation is independent of city size, using the first-ever large-scale evidence of neighbourhood-resolution data from 147 of the largest cities in contemporary India (the sample includes all cities in India with at least 0.3 million residents in 2011). This analysis sheds new light on one of the central conundrums in Indian urbanism — the persistence of caste segregation across the country, and across cities of varying sizes. It documents how patterns of residential caste segregation in the largest metropolitan centres with over 10 million residents closely track patterns in much smaller cities that are nearly two orders-of-magnitude smaller. This finding punctures a hole in one of the central normative promises of India’s urbanisation — the gradual withering of traditional caste-based segregation. These national findings are complemented by a unique census-scale micro-data containing detailed elementary caste (jati) information for nearly five million urban households in Karnataka. The analysis provides further fine-grained evidence of how segregation within the wards at census-block scales accounts for a significant part of the city scale patterns of segregation and is a central driver of ghettoisation of the most spatially marginalised groups in urban India — Muslims and Dalits. The authors offered several hypotheses and explanations and discussed implications for urban planning, policy, as well as broader modernisation theories.

Andaleeb Rahman is currently a Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University. His research interest lies in the area of food policy and ethnic politics.

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here.

As Kashmir continues to be on the boil for over 60 days now, a factual trajectory of the history of the state and its conflict (from 1947 till 2006) is captured in this primer by the late B G Verghese of CPR.

The primer was written with the objective of educating people, given the lack of easily accessible literature on the subject, and presents the central story of the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) conflict post 1947–in a series of snapshots.

From the history of its invasions, coups, and accession, to the account of the UN resolutions, to the resulting Indian, Pakistani and Chinese territorial control of the erstwhile princely state of J&K in 1949, the following wars, the many attempts at the peace process–including the origins of the plural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual tradition of Kashmiriyat–the primer is an important reference point for understanding and contextualising the current situation of the state.

A visual timeline of the highlights from the primer can be accessed above.

VIDEO RECORDING OF CPR-CSH URBAN WORKSHOP
URBAN GOVERNANCE

Watch the full video (above) of the preliminary findings presented by Sanjeev Vidhyarthi from his research on the actors shaping the fast growing Indian cities and their metropolitan regions.

The findings focus both on the changing perception of spatial plans, as well as the range of urban actors and how their plans are beginning to shape Indian urban regions in unprecedented ways.

Sanjeev Vidyarthi is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

EXCHANGE OF VIEWS BETWEEN EXPERTS FROM INDIA AND AUSTRALIA
POLITICS INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

Watch the full video (above) of a public forum organised by the Centre for Policy Research, which brought together experts from Niti Aayog (government of India’s think tank) and Australia, to discuss policy reforms, and how these can be enacted.

There was an exchange of views between the two coutnries on how to manage the policy environment, assess and analyse government and non-government stakeholders, and effect good policy. Particularly, since designing and implementing effective policy reform in multi-tiered complex democracies is difficult and challenging, especially where there are vocal and entrenched interests and stakeholders involved.

ANALYSING THE PM’S RESPONSE
POLITICS KASHMIR INDIA-PAKISTAN

SOUTH ASIA
CPR faculty G Parthasarathy comments on the Prime Minister taking stock of the situation in Kashmir following the death of Burhan Wani on DD News.

WATCH THE FULL VIDEO
WATER RESEARCH

Watch the full video of the talk (above) by Anthony Acciavatti focusing on a decade-long-project to create a dynamic atlas of the Ganges Machine–a method of mapping that exposes the juxtaposing layers of infrastructure and adjoining built forms. The goal of this dynamic atlas is to not only map space, but also map how spaces change over time.

Acciavatti also discusses the importance of mapping the choreography of water and human settlement at a time when the Government of India is beginning to invest a $1.5 billion loan from the World Bank to clean up the Ganges river.

A LITERATURE REVIEW AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY BY SUSAN E CHAPLIN
SANITATION URBAN SERVICES RIGHTS

Susan E Chaplin finds that existing literature provides little evidence of how sanitation inequalities impact the daily lives of poor women and girls.

What is the research about?

In this working paper, Susan Chaplin examines existing literature to find out what is known about how inequalities in urban sanitation access impacts the lives of poor women and girls, who have to queue up each morning to use public toilets, or have to decide which open defecation sites are the least dangerous to use.

How was the research conducted?’

The 68 articles and reports discussed in this literature review were largely collected using Google Scholar searches and the website Sanitation Updates, which provides regular email alerts on recently published journal articles and reports. Most of the evidence-based research and grey literature focused on India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and South Africa

What are the key findings?

Despite the focus on gender inequalities and sanitation in low income countries, within development goals, programmes, and projects, only 16 articles and reports either addressed gender inequalities or used gender analysis in examining results from their research projects.
The urban sanitation inequalities faced by working women, along with those who were ageing, disabled or living on pavements, has been largely ignored in the literature.
The linkages between gender-based violence and the lack of urban sanitation are poorly researched, documented or addressed in practice.
There is a lack of understanding in urban sanitation policies of how gender inequalities create toilet insecurity for millions of women and girls.

Conclusion

To understand how gender inequality operates at multiple levels across societies in the cities of the Global South, in relation to sanitation access, there is a critical need for better data collection which is gender aggregated. Most national statistics, at best, often just provide a very broad overview of sanitation facilities at the household level. These statistics don’t provide an adequate overview of the everyday lives of poor women and girls who are compelled to develop strategies to cope with lack of access to safe sanitation facilities. For many poor women and girls, this specifically means finding ways to cope with gender-based violence that occurs around community/public toilets and open defecation sites.
There is an urgent need to develop gender-sensitive understanding of the heterogeneous nature of slums and informal settlements, the diversity of the people who live in them, and the relationships between them, if urban sanitation inequalities are to be addressed to meet Sustainable Development Goals.
Data and research is also needed on how this lack of access impacts poor women and girls, women working in informal sectors, women with disabilities, ageing women, and homeless women. The understanding created by this new research could then be used to develop more appropriate and effective strategies to reduce gender inequalities in urban sanitation provision.

FULL VIDEO OF PANEL DISCUSSION AS PART OF CPR DIALOGUES
SOUTH ASIA INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

Watch the full video of the panel discussion on ‘Geopolitics and Geo-Economics in a Changing South Asia’, organised as part of CPR Dialogues, featuring Nimmi Kurian, Zorawar Daulet Singh, Ambassador Shivshankar Menon, chaired by Srinath Raghavan.

The contemporary phase of international politics is full of uncertainty and fluidity. The US is unable to enforce its writ over the system, nor is it able to supply the public goods necessary to produce a stable and flourishing world economy. Rising powers are contending for new roles and seeking to reshape the rules that govern world order. If we step back, however, what we notice is actually a recurring cycle in world history. A pattern of struggle and competition where each epoch has ultimately produced a larger and more dynamic process of capital accumulation and international division of labour. After a struggle for leadership, the baton passes towards a new contender who resuscitates world order and assumes the onus of managing the process of economic globalisation. Does the present phase portend such a scenario? What aspects of the ongoing power transition are similar to the past and what is distinct? Can the dominant power and its rivals arrive at a modus vivendi that avoids a zero-sum confrontation?

Coming to India and its region, the changing international environment has profound consequences. Both the geoeconomic order – an open world economy where capital and goods could move relatively freely between states – and a peaceful geopolitical setting underwritten by a great power peace has enabled India since the end of the last Cold War to focus on economic growth and development. Profound changes to this status quo imply that policymakers and strategic thinkers are being called upon to supply fresh ideas and frameworks for India’s foreign policy.

If unrelenting pressures on globalisation do continue to increase, it would imperil South Asia’s economic story. Short of finance capital, non-renewable energy resources, and industrial technologies, South Asia’s transformation for the past two decades has been intrinsically linked to reliable access to economic resources from other high-income and emerging economies. Any disruption to trans-national and trans-continental interdependence, will naturally push the region to look within it own socio-economic base to sustain its economic transformation. This would place greater responsibilities on India to safeguard not only its own economic prospects but supply public goods and assist its neighbours too. And, there is no sensible reason why India must seek to do this alone with its scarce resources and growing domestic claims. Cultivating diverse partnerships are, therefore, not a luxury but a strategic necessity. Setting the terms and shaping how other major powers with greater economic heft engage with the South Asia is one of the central challenges for India’s foreign policy. What have been missing from Indian debates are more sophisticated approaches to the multitude of regional visions and connectivity ideas that are being espoused by several great powers. Can India leverage its unique location at the crossroads of many of these geoeconomic visions provides to mediate and steer Asia’s political economy evolution in directions that advance its interests?

Furthermore, a fundamental assumption – indeed a sacrosanct premise – for India’s strategic thinking in the post-Cold War period has been internalising the reality of one preponderant power centre that shaped political and economic life across the globe. This structural setting – unipolarity as it was described by many – led to a basic Indian foreign policy framework of a sustained, albeit gradual and tentative at each step, integration into the US-led order as well as of course a transformation in bilateral relations with the US and its key allies. This has been a bipartisan strategy and for the most part it could be claimed that Indian policymakers accomplished this process within the broad confines of strategic autonomy with some success. But given the geopolitical changes now underway, without a careful strategic readjustment and a sensible assessment on Asian geopolitics, India’s foreign policy risks losing the advantages that might accrue from a multipolar Asia. How should India reimagine its place in this diffusion of global power and disintegration of the unipolar consensus?

The panel explored these and related themes to understand what possible roles can India realistically adopt to shape the ongoing power transition in a way that advances its domestic transformation and security along with a stable Asian and world order.

Srinath Raghavan is a Senior Fellow at CPR.

Nimmi Kurian is a Professor at CPR.

Zorawar Daulet Singh is a Fellow at CPR.

Ambassador Shivshankar Menon is the former National Security Advisor and Indian Foreign Secretary.

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here.

Coverage of the panel by ThePrint (digital partner for CPR Dialogues) can be accessed here.